Overview
- A Senate procedural vote is scheduled for September 15, 2026 to try to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, which would split oversight of tokens between the CFTC and the SEC and set new registration and compliance paths.
- Regulators are not waiting for Congress: the SEC has sent a rewrite of adviser custody rules to OIRA and published its Reg Crypto proposal, while the CFTC has approved regulated perpetual futures and is drafting market‑structure fallback rules.
- A bipartisan letter from former SEC and CFTC officials, sponsored by Kalshi, urges principles‑based, risk‑calibrated rules to lure perpetual‑futures trading onshore and warns that heavy compliance could push liquidity overseas.
- Market signals underline the stakes: Kalshi reports more than $1 billion of early onshore perpetuals volume and estimates put offshore perpetuals notional near $90 trillion in 2025, creating a large competitive gap for U.S. venues.
- If CLARITY fails, expect faster agency action that can be implemented sooner but is open to legal challenges and reversal, which would leave firms facing short‑term rule changes and long‑term regulatory uncertainty.